NICOLAS "NICOZARK" LEROY

-Nice to meet you, Nicolas. Please use three words to introduce yourself. 
-Nicolas Leroy: Hello, Nawakène freaks..... So, you said "three words"? Eeerh... musician, independent, versatile.... I think these ones work quite well....

-What brought you to become an active musician?
-Nicolas Leroy: OK here's the story.... I grew up in a family where music had an important place. My parents had a great collection of vinyls with everything from classical, jazz, rock, folk stuff etc. As a child I used to spend a lot of time around the record player listening eagerly to all those records. By the age of 8, I was taking piano and musical theory lessons and one year later, I took my father's guitar and began messing around with the instrument and transcribing on the guitar everything I had just learned on piano, which was really easy for me since I had absolute ear. My first attempts at writing music go back to that era. At the age of 13 I began to play organ for services at church - which I still do to this day - then I got my first bands at school. Everything developed from there....

-You’re now an important member of Sousbock. How do you define your role, compared to the leader Seb?
-Nicolas Leroy: I'm very implied on the arranging and the playing on the albums, I didn't write anything except the music for one song which will be included on the fourth album, to be released within a month if everything works right... Basically, what I'm doing with the songs is putting some edge and detail to the arrangements. I also try to expand the sound library of the band, especially in the keyboard and synths field, where I spend time dealing with sounds and creating sounds that fits well with the songs. As far as the guitar field is concerned, I put a little more emphasis on improvised stuff, especially with guitar solos, which is something I feel Sousbock needed a bit more...

-Among your work, what is the piece that you think represents you the most, and why ?
-Nicolas Leroy: Last year, I wrote and recorded a tune called "Tightrope Walk" which will be released on the EOAIAO compilation called "Evidences" in a few weeks.... This one means a lot for me because musically, it contains some very controlled and arranged stuff along with some more improvised sections.... It was a personal challenge for me to come up with both forms in a single tune.... And it's also a musical meditation about some important and recent events in my life. I hadn't written anything in almost two years prior to that....

-Any song you’re ashamed of, and why ?
-Nicolas Leroy: I didn't write that much, and I'm really self indulgent with my early work. I'd rather say I feel tenderness about it. Among those tunes, there are some things here and there where references to the musicians I admire are too obvious and a little bit clumsy and naive in the way they were written.... I mean I'm not really ashamed because I feel those were sincere efforts but I was still learning to write....

-If you had a magic wand, in what band would you play right now?
-Nicolas Leroy: Peter Gabriel's band.

-What would you say to Awa-news readers who might not know you, to convince them to listen to your albums?
-Nicolas Leroy: Be patient, my time will come.

-We are waiting to hear your own songs. What prevents you to release them: shyness, perfectionism or just a lack of time?
-Nicolas Leroy: We'll it's a mix of all those things really. Another reason is that to this day, I played in bands where the writing was taken in charge exclusively by the leader and I hadn't the strength to submit my own songs, I wasn't self-confident enough....One of the reasons too is I've been away from music business for about three years because of illness, so I just had to take time for me at this point, sometimes life leaves you no choice. Anyway, things have turned far better for me in the last year and I'm much more confident than in the past, so I'm pretty sure I'm up to develop my own thing by now, and I must confess my family and friends have been a wonderful support for me in encouraging me to do so. So stay tuned, I'm back....

-Last but not least, would you openly admit that you are an Awaken fan ?
-Nicolas Leroy: I think I am. Snowcat is a madman, and I certainly am in my own sweet way. I have lot of respect for freaks like him and some of his songs stick to my mind since the day I heard them. That's my definition for "being fan", as far as I'm concerned.

(interview from Awa-news, 2009 or 2010)